Kevin Duffy: No. 8 for Geno a 'team title’

Updated 11:37 am, Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma receives the championship trophy of the women\'s Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in New Orleans. Connecticut defeated Louisville 93-60.

Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma receives the championship...

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the Connecticut Huskies cuts down the net after defeating the Louisville Cardinals during the 2013 NCAA Women\'s Final Four Championship at New Orleans Arena on April 9, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the Connecticut Huskies cuts down the...

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the Connecticut Huskies hugs Kelly Faris #34 as she exits the game in the second half against the Louisville Cardinals during the 2013 NCAA Women\'s Final Four Championship at New Orleans Arena on April 9, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the Connecticut Huskies hugs Kelly...

Connecticut players celebrate as they carry head coach Geno Auriemma off the court after defeating Louisville 93-60 in the national championship game of the women\'s Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in New Orleans.

Connecticut players celebrate as they carry head coach Geno...

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the Connecticut Huskies is carried off the court by his players after defeating the Louisville Cardinals winning his eighth National Championship during the 2013 NCAA Women\'s Final Four Championship at New Orleans Arena on April 9, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS -- Forget the national championship trophy, the Huskies wanted to carry their coach.

In the aftermath of the biggest blowout in the history of the NCAA women's basketball championship game, Caroline Doty had Geno Auriemma's left leg and Kiah Stokes was assigned to his right leg as his team literally carried him off the New Orleans Arena floor.

After all, this was a historical night for the Huskies. Their coach had tied the legendary Pat Summitt with eight national titles.

"To look back now, and see where we've come, what's happened at Connecticut in the last 18 years, never in our wildest dreams did we think that was possible," Auriemma said. "To be there, in that spot with Pat Summitt, that means a lot to me."

As Auriemma addressed the historical significance of title No. 8, the Huskies celebrated in their locker room. Stefanie Dolson sang at the top of her lungs -- "Bleed Blue!" she belted -- with Maya Moore laughing beside her. The stars -- and there's a few of them -- entertained interviews. And Stokes, who normally leads the daily locker room game of "Uno", stood in amazement.

Tuesday's Uno game was officially cancelled.

"Too much excitement," Stokes said. "We can't focus."

If basketball was a card game, Auriemma could have declared "Uno" at the start of each of his previous seven title seasons. The declaration, of course, is code for, "You're all in trouble. I've got one."

More precisely, I've got The One. And in women's hoops, The One -- Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker -- usually brings home the goods. Only six times since 1998 has the Naismith Winner not won the national championship. Only once -- in 2000 -- did Auriemma win without the national player of the year. Even that year, he had Sue Bird.

That's what makes No. 8 so special. Auriemma didn't hold the trump card in 2013. This was as much a "team title" as we've ever seen in Connecticut.

In Auriemma's previous seven championships, his teams had gone 256-6. This team --talented as it was -- lost four games, which would be cause for celebration at 95 percent of programs. At UConn, though, four losses can twist this into the Storrs version of an underdog story.

The story began in the fall, when Auriemma watched his players in preseason workouts and told them, "I think this can be a really special group. You guys have a certain something."

But two regular season losses to Notre Dame -- albeit by the slimmest of margins -- and slow progress from specific players had him wondering.

"Maybe what I saw wasn't really true," Auriemma said before Monday's practice. "I started to privately go, `Man, I hope I didn't overestimate what we have here."

No one could have overestimated the impact of 18 year old Breanna Stewart, whose game elevated to unbelievable heights as the stakes rose. A 29-point breakout against Notre Dame was followed up by an electrifying 18 in the first half Tuesday, totally deflating Louisville. Stewart's high-arching 3-pointer (plus the foul) and an acrobatic tip-in during UConn's onslaught will forever live on in the highlights.

What we may have underestimated, though, is the impact of everyone else: Mosqueda-Lewis established herself as a lethal sharpshooter; she buried five 3-pointers in Tuesday's rout.

In September, Auriemma thought Bria Hartley was playing "as well as anyone we've had." Through a midseason slump, Hartley never wavered because, as Auriemma put it, "she's stubborn." Bria Hartley thinks she's the best guard on the floor. And you know what? Against Skylar Diggins and Shoni Schimmel, she was.

And through its midseason slump, UConn still believed it was the best. Guess that turned out to be true, too.

As assistant coach Chris Dailey said Monday, UConn assumed the personality of Stefanie Dolson, comfortable as herself, happy and fun-loving, yet willing to gut it out through a stress fracture in her right ankle. Dolson couldn't move too well Saturday, but you better believe she danced on the ladder when it was her turn to cut down the nets.

"It's just overwhelming, to say the least," Dolson said.

And if there was a "rock" to this championship squad, it was Kelly Faris, the senior who, according to Auriemma, "looks like a kid from a basketball-crazy state who just loves to play basketball."

"I don't think there's that much of that anymore," Auriemma said.

On Tuesday, she exited with 2:04 remaining, embraced for a good five seconds by Auriemma. She had drilled four wide-open 3-pointers -- her markedly-improved shooting was one of the many keys to this championship season -- and, in typical Faris fashion, she had done everything else.

"Normally when you talk about players that have had great, great careers at Connecticut, you can identify them by a great skill they had," Auriemma said. "They're never going to introduce her as, `Kelly Faris the great shooter or Kelly Faris the great passer.'"

"When people ask me, `Who's one of the best players you ever had at Connecticut?' and I'll say `Kelly Faris,'" Auriemma explained. "Why? She was great at making sure we were in a position to win every night."

This March, the Huskies were always in comfortable position -- usually in the first half. The team that couldn't win a close regular season game never played one in the tournament.

"Coach told us, `great teams peak at the right time,'" Mosqueda-Lewis said. "As a group, everyone came into their own as we entered the tournament."

In some respect, the cards fell in the Huskies' favor: Baylor was knocked out long before they reached New Orleans, and the path became considerably easier. But Auriemma --dealt good cards in October -- played his hand masterfully, all the individual pieces coming together at the perfect time.

"It was nothing you could see, but it was a struggle," Auriemma said. "It was a struggle for us internally to get connected and to be the kind of team I knew we could be. But this past month has been everything and more I could hope for...They deserve this."